Price indices measure changes over time in the price level of consumer products. The United States consumer price index (“CPI”), calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a widely used index, which tracks the price of a sample of items that consumers buy for day-to-day living. Similarly, the producer price index (“PPI”) tracks the selling prices received by domestic producers for their output.
Each of these conventional indices is constructed monthly, based on market surveys. Therefore, a significant lag exists in the index data. In addition, these indices do not provide specific pricing trend information for Internet-based sales.
Therefore, it would be useful to provide a price index for products purchased online. It also would be useful for such an index to provide up to date information.